A fire has broken out next to the track between East Midlands Parkway and Loughborough and causing disruption to the London St Pancras , Nottingham , Sheffield route.

The major disruption started around lunchtime today, Sunday, August 19 and customers are being advised not to travel.

A spokesman for East Midlands Trains said: “Unfortunately the size of the fire is preventing our trains to run safely through the affected area.

“Therefore the emergency services have asked for trains to stop running North of Leicester. Network Rail and the emergency services are working hard to reopen the line as soon as possible.

“We are currently expecting major disruption to our services for the rest of the day.”

Trains are no longer running between Leicester and Sheffield and Nottingham and East Midlands Trains on the London St Pancras, Nottingham, Sheffield route will run between London St Pancras and Leicester only.

The EMT spokesman said: “We are advising customers not to travel today. Tickets dated for today Sunday, August 19, will be accepted tomorrow Monday, August 20.

“We are unfortunately not able to offer alternative routes from stations North of Leicester as there are planned engineering works at London Euston. This has resulted in alternative routes via Birmingham becoming unavailable.

“Also trains from London Kings Cross are impacted by the engineering works at London Euston. London North Eastern Railway services are extremely busy and therefore we cannot offer this as an alternative route at this time.

“We have replacement buses running between Nottingham and Leicester calling at Beeston, East Midlands Parkway and Loughborough.”

East Midlands Trains ticket will be accepted on CrossCountry on the following routes: Sheffield and Chesterfield, Sheffield and Birmingham New Street and Leicester and Birmingham New Street.